Over 100 Rose Heights residents to get land titles

WESTERN BUREAU:

 Once boundaries are determined through an upcoming survey, about 150 residents of Rose Heights in St James Central are set to receive land titles, formalising ownership of the properties they occupy.

The announcement was made by Heroy Clarke, member of parliament for the area, at his Constituency Development Fund (CDF) consultation meeting at Cornwall College in Montego Bay last Thursday.

Clarke said he had been informed by Robert Montague, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, that surveyors would be sent to the community soon, though no timeline was given.

“It was in the middle of the night, last night [May 27], that I got a call from the Minister, Honourable Robert Montague, saying that he has 150 titles for which he will be sending persons to Rose Heights, and nowhere else,” Clarke said.

He added that Montague asked him to identify someone familiar with the community to accompany the surveyors to ensure a smooth process.

Clarke said they had previously begun distributing land titles but had to halt the process after discovering boundary issues.

“We had previously started handing out some titles, and we had to stop because we found that for one of ‘John Brown’s’ pegs for his land, you would have to go into ‘James Barrett’s’ bathroom to put down the peg,” Clarke said. 

To address this, they introduced a survey method, where boundaries are measured based on existing physical markers.

“We came up with the ‘as is’ survey, meaning, wherever the people have their zinc or barbed wire, you just jam the peg there and do the measurement.”

“That has been the work thus far from that time, but sometimes you have to squeeze some people, and they do not want to take the squeeze,” he added.

Rose Heights was among several western Jamaica communities that received 52 land titles from the Housing Agency of Jamaica in 2024. Others included Norwood, Retirement, Pitfour and Flanker in St James; Galloway, Whitehouse and Whitehall in Westmoreland; and Fisherman’s Village in Hanover.

In addition to land titling, Rose Heights and nearby communities in St James Central have faced longstanding infrastructure challenges, including poor road conditions and unreliable water supply.

Clarke told the meeting that while each of Jamaica’s 63 constituencies receives $20 million from the CDF for local projects, the sum is inadequate for required infrastructure work.

“Each constituency will tell you that they want a different sum, so no two constituencies are the same. The $20 million that we get from the CDF is to give to the MP a bargaining chip, but remember now that there are other works to be done, and if you want a road for $200 million dollars, then anything over $40 million has to go to Cabinet, and the time it takes to say that you want a $40 million road, up to when you actually see the workmen doing the road, is anywhere between 18 to 24 months,” Clarke said.

He said he has adopted a strategy of pursuing smaller projects to avoid delays associated with larger works.

“I go for the $10 million, $15 million, and $20 million dollar roads, which just take four weeks to be implemented,” Clarke said. “I don't tell them about one road; I tell them six or seven roads.”

“For example, this is the third time that we are going on the Flower Hill Road [in St James Central], but there are two areas there that we have done before and we don’t have to go back over them again.”

“The $20 million [from the CDF] is never enough, but that is just something in hand,” he added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com